Ramteen Arablui

Utah, 1877. A man named Wallace Wilkerson stops by a saloon. He starts by playing a game of cards with another man named William Baxter. An argument starts. Wilkerson takes out a gun, shoots Baxter in the head, killing him, and then he flees. Wilkerson is captured. A few months later, he's convicted of murder and sentenced to be executed the next month.

Wilkerson was sentenced to be executed by a firing squad, a sentence that was challenged all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had to decide whether a firing squad violated Wallace Wilkerson's Eighth Amendment rights.

Wilkerson was sentenced to be executed by a firing squad, a sentence that was challenged all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had to decide whether a firing squad violated Wallace Wilkerson's Eighth Amendment rights.

Wilkerson was sentenced to be executed by a firing squad, a sentence that was challenged all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had to decide whether a firing squad violated Wallace Wilkerson's Eighth Amendment rights.

So what is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide its boundaries? And what do we know about how the people who wrote the Eighth Amendment imagined its meaning might change? I'm Ramteen Arablui.

So what is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide its boundaries? And what do we know about how the people who wrote the Eighth Amendment imagined its meaning might change? I'm Ramteen Arablui.

So what is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide its boundaries? And what do we know about how the people who wrote the Eighth Amendment imagined its meaning might change? I'm Ramteen Arablui.

Coming up, the Eighth Amendment and what cruel and unusual actually means.

Coming up, the Eighth Amendment and what cruel and unusual actually means.

Coming up, the Eighth Amendment and what cruel and unusual actually means.

Around the same time, a movement was brewing, one led by intellectuals around Europe who celebrated reason and knowledge and freedom and pushed the world toward more humanitarian ideals. It was the beginning of the Enlightenment, and one Italian philosopher would be especially influential to the American founders, Cesare Beccaria.

Around the same time, a movement was brewing, one led by intellectuals around Europe who celebrated reason and knowledge and freedom and pushed the world toward more humanitarian ideals. It was the beginning of the Enlightenment, and one Italian philosopher would be especially influential to the American founders, Cesare Beccaria.

Around the same time, a movement was brewing, one led by intellectuals around Europe who celebrated reason and knowledge and freedom and pushed the world toward more humanitarian ideals. It was the beginning of the Enlightenment, and one Italian philosopher would be especially influential to the American founders, Cesare Beccaria.

The Academy of Fists, which definitely sounds like the name of a pop punk band from the 90s, got its name because sometimes their intellectual debates would lead to fights. I know, ironic. But when they weren't fighting, they were thinking.

The Academy of Fists, which definitely sounds like the name of a pop punk band from the 90s, got its name because sometimes their intellectual debates would lead to fights. I know, ironic. But when they weren't fighting, they were thinking.

The Academy of Fists, which definitely sounds like the name of a pop punk band from the 90s, got its name because sometimes their intellectual debates would lead to fights. I know, ironic. But when they weren't fighting, they were thinking.

And in 1764, he wrote a book opposing torture and the death penalty.

And in 1764, he wrote a book opposing torture and the death penalty.

And in 1764, he wrote a book opposing torture and the death penalty.

on crimes and punishments.